'Yes, startups are very risky, and they often fail. But when they don’t fail, their stock can become quite valuable. I wish I’d taken a job as an early employee

'Yes, startups are very risky, and they often fail. But when they don’t fail, their stock can become quite valuable. I wish I’d taken a job as an early employee at a startup and gotten some equity when I graduated from college' The author means she wishes she'd joined a -successful- startup. That, or she wishes she'd had better challenges out of college, ones that she still could have completed, though (rather than just taken a job at a startup yet failed to be productive at it). The problem is that the former is impossible to pick, and the latter isn't guaranteed just because you joined a startup. You should be picking a job at a startup with the assumption that the startup will fail. Is this particular startup opportunity you're looking at (not 'it's a startup!', but, 'it's a chance to work at X, using technologies Y, with team members of Z, management seems good, the environment seems good, the compensation is good enough') worth it, given that? And if you take it, periodically ask, given this startup will fail (take that attitude, even if things are beginning to look positive), is the environment still worth it? The fact it's a startup, the fact it includes equity, are -terrible- reasons to stay at a job that you aren't growing in and learning to enjoy. I've experienced good enterprise jobs, where I felt I had a massive say in what technologies were used, in what tasks we prioritized, and felt extremely responsible to get things done, to where I felt I was constantly learning, and better yet, felt incentivized to go learn more on my own. I felt that my efforts were recognized, that my management gave a damn, and that collectively my department was effective, and supportive, and that my time was respected. I've experienced bad startup jobs, where I felt micromanaged, that I had no say, that my tasks were constantly shifting and never under my own control, and that the existing cruft from prior pivots was so large that I had no real freedom to experiment or expand into the areas other people, who were more knowledgeable about the code, were working in, and by the time I left I felt I had learned nothing, and felt so drained at the end of the day I had no inclination to do anything on getting home. I felt unrecognized, viewed largely as a useful code monkey, that my time was not respected, and that collectively everyone was just in it for the paycheck and the hope of an eventual payout of their equity. Take articles like this as reasons to consider a startup, but NOT as "startups are better". Just because something is a startup is not a reason to take it, just as it's not a reason to dismiss it. Whatever opportunities you face are specific to you, and they should be evaluated by you based on their actual merits.